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Q&A
Panelists respond to Council Member Lee's questions on outreach and bill amendments
1:38:36
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3 min
Jasmine Budnella and Jacob Clary respond to Council Member Lee's questions, discussing their outreach programs, partnerships, and concerns about the proposed bills.
- Budnella explains VOCAL-NY's peer-delivered syringe exchange program and emphasizes the need for collaboration between city agencies
- Clary argues that the bills address symptoms rather than root causes and advocates for overdose prevention centers
- Both speakers suggest that legislative solutions may not be the best approach to addressing the complex issues at hand
Jasmine Budnella
1:38:36
Yeah.
1:38:36
I'll start on the outreach, and then maybe we can mention a little bit about the bill.
1:38:40
Our outreach program is called peer delivered syringe exchange, which is through our syringe service program.
1:38:46
We know that peers on the ground are the best people to connect as you're mentioning with other outreach programs.
1:38:52
As you all might know, Vocal New York is also an organizing shop, and we've long called on more collaboration between city agencies on these multiple crises of homelessness, of substance use, mental health.
1:39:06
We need collaboration because what is happening is each different piece is being addressed differently.
1:39:14
Our peer delivered syringe service program is really rooted in just trying to get people into care.
1:39:21
Often though, I will mention, as it was mentioned earlier by the Department of Health, some of the areas that we're covering are pretty far from our our brick and mortar, and so we need to continue providing that care there.
1:39:34
I will mention that the city also has a heat team, and I know that there's been some complications with that, but we have partnered with heat teams in the past.
1:39:44
Sorry.
1:39:44
The last part on the bill, the two bills, You know, I'm I'm also a supervisor, and sometimes I'm often asking what are we trying to solve.
1:39:54
And so I think that instead of legislating, what you're attempting to do here is we're trying to solve multiple crises at the same time.
1:40:03
We're trying to solve homelessness.
1:40:04
We're trying to solve syringe litter.
1:40:06
We're trying to solve the overdose crisis.
1:40:09
And so I think that requires collaboration.
1:40:11
I love that you mentioned community.
1:40:13
It's really critical that we're having conversations with community agencies, elected officials at both the council level, the city, and the state, which I know that there's been some amazing champions here.
1:40:25
So I think legislating our way out of this is actually more more harmful than us being able to to roll up our sleeves, get in community, and have conversations.
Linda Lee
1:40:35
Now I hear you on that because oftentimes I remember being on your side of aisle and you know a lot of bills are well intentioned, sometimes in terms of the implementation as well as the execution phase, there needs to be more thought out there.
1:40:51
So we're these are just again early stages of us considering these bills and figuring out what maybe some of the potential roadblocks and challenges challenges could be and how to also address the concerns.
1:41:03
So I appreciate all of your perspectives and if you wanted to jump in if not feel free to resubmit the written testimony piece.
1:41:12
Yes and you can email Sarah directly, I swear to God these amazing staff read every single word of the testimonies and oftentimes it does give us a lot of ideas about how we sort of relook at things.
1:41:23
So I appreciate all of you and your work and Housing Works does have a program in my district which I'm very thankful for so thank you.
Jacob Clary
1:41:30
Oh go ahead.
1:41:31
Just wanted to add something.
1:41:32
Oh go ahead please.
1:41:34
Okay.
1:41:34
I think the issue is that these bills are talking about a symptom and they're really trying to nibble around the edges when we need wholesale change.
1:41:45
I mentioned overdose prevention centers in my testimony, and I just want to double down on that.
1:41:53
When we limit access to syringes, we don't stop people from using drugs, we stop them from using drugs safely.
1:42:00
Every HIV infection, every hepatitis c and b infection is a policy failure.
1:42:06
We know what works, and what works is syringe exchange and even further than that what works is overdose prevention centers.
1:42:14
If you want syringes off the street, give people a place to use safely.